An area committee member (ACM) from the Pedabayalu Dalam of the banned CPI (Maoist), Korra Singru alias Sundar Rao alias Joyo alias Jaya, was arrested by the district police near Sapparla Junction in G.K. Veedhi mandal under the Sileru police station limits on Saturday.
The police alleged that Singru was leading a Maoist action team with some active militia members, and was planning to attack the security forces and special police parties by detonating the landmines.
Following Intelligence inputs, a police team nabbed Singru recovered one country-made pistol, five 7.65 mm or .32 cartridges, one metal tiffin box filled with 2kg of explosive material, two detonators, 60 metres of electrical wires and four torch batteries from their possession.
The 52-year-old Maoist, a resident of Kondrum village in Pedabayalu mandal, had joined the movement in 2000. He was influenced by Bakkuri Venkataramana alias Ganesh, who was killed in the Ramaguda encounter in 2016.
Superintendent of Police B. Krishna Rao said the arrested Maoist was moving with the party members in the Galikonda, Korukonda, and Pedabayalu areas, and in the cut-off areas in the AOB region. He had actively taken part in about 70 offences in the last 21 years, the SP said.
He was also allegedly involved in about four murders – Chikkudu Satyarao at Chinthagaruvu village in Pedabayalu in December 2020; Korra Rangarao at Landulu village in October 2019 and Korra Sathibabu at Bongajangi village in June 2019 (both in Pedabayalu mandal); and Kolakani Surya Chandrababu at Maddigaruvu in G Madugula mandal in December 2017. All the four were killed after branding them as police informers.
Singru was also allegedly involved in two landmine blasts – one in September 2020 at Chintalaveedhi in which two innocent villagers had died and the other on the Balapam-Kistavaram road in November 2021, which was targeted against the police parties involved in ganja destruction. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident.
The police alleged that Singru also participated in five exchanges of fire from 2017 to 2021, one of which was on June 16, 2021, at Teegalametta of Koyyuru mandal, in which six Maoists, including a few top leaders such as Ranadev and Ashok, had been killed.
He was also involved in the exchanges of fire in the Digujanaba forest in Chintapalli in 2020, in which Pangi Pethru alias Daya was killed, and in the Sirlimetta forest in the cut-off area in December 2017, in which ACM Chukkalu was killed.
He had a reward of about ₹4 lakh on his head.
With the arrest of Singru, the presence of the Maoists in the Visakha Agency further weakened. The area was now being looked after by a handful of cadres and leaders such as Ashok and Korra Nageswara Rao.
It is learnt that after the Koyyuru encounter in June last, the security forces have stepped up the offensive both on the Andhra and Odisha sides, forcing the top leaders such as Aruna, Gajarla Ravi alias Uday, and Kakuri Pandana alias Jagan to escape to safer places in the Dandakaranya region.
